In prior Internet marketing systems, users, such as buyers of advertising space, advertising businesses, and other advertisers, directly or indirectly purchase or otherwise obtain the advertising space from distributors, such as advertising networks and publishers, to place or otherwise distribute advertisements to targeted individuals using data gleaned from the online activity of the targeted individuals. Targeted individuals may include, for example, consumers and/or persons employed, affiliated, and/or associated with a business, such as owners, executives, and/or employees of the business. Distributors may own the advertising space and/or represent another entity which owns the advertising space. For example, if a consumer navigates to a travel website and enters parameters for a desired vacation, the parameters can be stored as part of the consumer's browsing data, which may include other online consumer behavior and associated data. The distributor can obtain or otherwise interrogate this browsing data and use it to identify advertisements tailored to the various parameters, and serve the advertisements to the device(s) associated with the browsing data for presentment to the consumer using the device(s).
There are drawbacks, however, to prior targeted marketing platforms. In particular, the users and distributors who leverage browsing data are not capable of identifying targeted individuals and matching various data to the targeted individuals and/or to aggregated pools with sufficient accuracy. For example, browsing data, such as data stored as cookies or other data on a device, is generally anonymous in that no personally identifiable information is included in such data. Personally identifiable information must be provided by the consumer. In addition, while the browsing data is associated with the device on which the browsing is performed, multiple people may use a single device, thus leaving open the possibility many individuals may be doing the browsing. As a result, the users are limited in their ability to identify targeted individuals with targeted marketing materials, including credit-, service-, or product-related advertisements and offers, such as, for example, credit card applications, small business loans, vehicle offers, non-financial services offers, offers related to improving business operations, and/or other similar advertisements and offers that may require authentication of the identity of the recipient. Consequently, electronically delivered marketing campaigns including an offer of credit, for example, cannot be made using prior systems because prior systems cannot ensure that the targeted consumer is matched to the right household, and will receive an offer during a campaign. Traditional prescreen offers involve a financial institution determining their criteria, a credit bureau generating a prescreen list based on the criteria, and executing a campaign whereby all consumers on the prescreen list receive a firm offer of credit via direct mail, email, or other traditional channels where the identity of the recipient can be assured. Digital prescreen offers have not previously been made in the marketplace because a financial institution cannot ensure the offer will be made to the targeted consumer.
Consequently, there exists a need for improved systems and methods that can permit the electronic delivery of certain marketing offers that in the past could not be made electronically due to uncertainty as to the identity of the recipient and the preapproved offers available to that recipient.